Rubio rejects reports he will leave his jobs to run for president

• Rubio rejected reports he plans to leave the Trump administration, saying serving until the end of Trump’s term has “always been my plan” and he will not discuss 2028.
• He said he would back J.D. Vance for president, calling him “a very good friend” and “a phenomenal candidate” if he runs.
• Rubio backed Trump’s choices on Iran, Israel and prices, saying leadership means taking actions that may be unpopular but are needed for the country.

WASHINGTON – US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Nov 5 dismissed reports that he was planning to leave the Trump administration and declined to answer questions about his political future.

Working for US President Donald Trump until the end of his term has “always been my plan”, he said in an interview with The New York Times.

Responding to the news reports that he was mulling over an exit, Rubio said: “I don’t know where these things come from, to be honest with you.”

“I love the work I’m doing,” he continued. “And plus I always laugh when they say he’s going to leave his job. I go, ‘Which one?’”

Rubio, who is also Trump’s national security adviser, declined to answer questions about whether he was considering running for president in 2028.

“I literally will not talk about 2028 anymore,” he said in the interview, in his White House office. “I just won’t do it.”

Rubio has said that he would support Vice-President J.D. Vance if he ran for president.

“J.D. is a very good friend of mine,” he told NBC News in May. “If JD runs for president, I think he’d be a phenomenal candidate. I’ve said publicly, and I’ll say it again, I’ll be the first person to sign up and support him.”

Vance offered a striking critique in his post-election analysis on Nov 4 in a lengthy post on social media, commentary that distanced himself from Trump.

The vice-president blamed the war with Iran for Republicans’ disastrous election results and said Republicans had turned against the administration’s policy on Israel and its messaging on the economy. The president has closely aligned himself with Israel and dismissed affordability concerns as a “hoax”.

Rubio initially deflected when asked whether he agreed with Vance’s assessment, saying he was not “really involved in domestic politics”.

But Trump brought Rubio onstage at his political rally on Nov 1 in Kansas and lavished praise on him, joking that he might have to fire him because he had become “too popular”. Rubio spoke briefly, praising Trump for keeping Americans safe.

Rubio explained why he was there, as the designated national security official travelling with the president, and then acknowledged that Trump had said the war was a factor in the elections.

“Higher prices at the gas pump, I acknowledge, is not like the kind of thing you campaign on and brag about,” he said.

But Rubio said Trump “deserves a tremendous amount of credit” for taking action that he thought was necessary even if it was not popular among voters.

“Ultimately, that is the price of leadership – is the willingness to do things that may not be politically popular or expedient but are necessary for your country and its long-term future,” he said. NYTIMES

• This article originally appeared in The New York Times.